Airbnb

The Scoop

Airbnb is as human as brands get. So when they came to us asking to leverage artificial intelligence to create incredible human connection, I couldn't help but feel like this was a bit of a catch-22. But as it turns out, AI is most effective in it's simplest forms (i.e. autocorrect, preference suggestion, etc.). So who's to say that AI can't help travelers become more connected to a city and its people?

Well that's exactly what we did - allow guests to connect to more locals than ever before

The Brief

Problem

How do we show people that AI can help us be more human?

Target

The Traveling Local: 9/10 Travelers rely on review websites to plan their trips, yet only 5/10 of these travelers trust the reviews. This is for good reason, these sites are full of fake reviews, and aren't conducive to connecting with a city in the most authentic way. Travelers trust the opinions of close personal friends and locals, because while a friend knows their preferences, a local knows what's best.

Insight

As a local, you know exactly what travelers won't experience

Strategy

Airbnb AI gives travelers the most personalized, local experience

The Idea

The Platform

Airbnb Locals is an on-demand local expertise platform within the Airbnb app. With machine intelligence, the app learns the travelers preferences to recommend what they like, while also pairing them up with a local who can give them the best recommendation.

Instead of being limited to one host when someone travels with Airbnb, travelers now have an entire network of hosts at their fingertips. Giving travelers a deeper connection to the cities they travel to.

Opting In

Hosts can pick-and-choose when they want to give their local expertise to travelers.

Machine Intelligence

The AI takes location, weather & time into account when giving activity suggestions